1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a reverse vending machine. The reverse vending machine comprises an insertion area for inserting an object into the inside of the reverse vending machine, a transport unit for transporting the object in a transport area along a transport axis and an arrangement of cameras for capturing images of the object from several capturing directions.
2. Description of the Related Art
From the prior art, a reverse vending machine having a ring scanner is known. In the known reverse vending machine, the scanner is arranged around the bottle feed-in funnel as a closed ring. The viewing direction of the scanner cameras originates from the reflective vertical glass surface obliquely towards the rear. In the closed state, a gap of about 30 mm exists between the ring scanner and the transport belt arranged behind it. The package can only be scanned from below since the cameras scan from below at an angle to the rear through this gap between scanner and transport belt. By means of this arrangement, the depth of the scanner in transport direction also defines the depth by which the customer reaches into the machine until the customer can place the package on the transport belt. In doing so, residual amounts of liquids can run out of the packages through the gap and downward and can contaminate the camera lens. Thus, the known reverse vending machine has the disadvantage that the cameras provided underneath the transport belt can be contaminated by liquids running out from packages placed above them, as a result whereof the recognition performance of the ring scanner is reduced.
Based on the known prior art, it is the object of the invention to specify a reverse vending machine that enables an easy and reliable capturing of images of an object to be scanned.